Box Chinese lingulides

Did early lingulides live in burrows like many of their descendants? Xianshanella haikouensis from the Lower Cambrian Chengjiang fauna, South China was a subcircular animal with horny setae and a massive pedicle. Zhang Zhifei and his colleagues (2006) have shown that these earliest brachiopods did not live in burrows, but actually attached themselves to the shells of other invertebrates - an epibenthonic rather than infaunal mode of life (Fig. 12.10). Moreover the Chengjiang lingulide has a lophophore, a U-shaped digestive tract and an anteriorly-located anus; these advanced features were already present in the lingulate brachiopod lineage right from the start it seems.